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The Ash Days/Riot's Story
RIOT'S STORY "My name is Graypaw and my world is burning around me." 'PART ONE' “Graypaw, let’s go!” Hazelpaw bounded up to me. “You said we would go hunting right after sunset! Can’t we go already?” “Sorry,” I say hastily, gathering up the dirty moss, “I just had to finish cleaning out the bedding. You know how Whitewhisker is when I don’t finish all my duties.” My mentor always got cranky if I ditched my chores with Hazelpaw. Hazelpaw is my best friend. She and I liked to slip out of camp to see the sunrise and the sunset and to do crazy yet fun missions around StormClan. “Hunting” is our general term for it, but I don’t think we’ve ever actually hunted together. As we slip outside, Hazelpaw puts her mouth near my ear. “Let’s go to the Fire Woods,” she says excitedly, her green eyes wild with excitement. I feel nervous. “Apprentices aren’t allowed there,” I remind her, “we even made a pact that we wouldn’t break any rules when doing our stunts.” “We’re almost warriors anyway,” Hazelpaw dismisses, “come on, let’s have a bit of fun today.” “Can’t we watch the sunset?” “Haven’t you heard?” Hazelpaw begins dragging me, “The best view of the sunset is in the Fire Woods.” I can tell by her tone that she’s just making it up to get me to come along so I just sigh and follow her into the forest. The Fire Woods separate us from the rest of the world on the north side, and it is said that a fire raged through it, wiping everything out but it stopped at the StormClan border. The warriors say the Fire Woods are still brittle and if it is hot enough, the heat could still spark a fire, so only warriors patrol it to ensure that the heat isn’t going to cause another forest fire. We reach the edge of StormClan territory and I peer into it. It looks almost ashen, as if the flames had drained the trees of its colors. “Hazelpaw--” “Don’t be a scaredy cat,” Hazelpaw pushes me in first before bounding after me. We pad around there, treading carefully in my case. “There’s nothing here,” I finally tell her after five minutes, “there’s nothing exciting here.” “How do you know--?” Hazelpaw cuts herself off, her eyes wide. I feel fear run through me and I nudge my best friend. “What’s wrong? What do you see? Why are you…?” Hazelpaw jabs her paw to indicate it is behind me and I whirl around. “TRICKED YOU!” Hazelpaw purrs when I stare at the space blankly. I groan and I turn back around. “Hah, you’re so tense. Come on, loosen up! It’s not there’s been a fire since the first Great Fire.” I glance around me. “Yeah but there’s nothing here to see but dead trees. We should go back and clean off all this ash and smoke because you know Whitewhisker and Goldenflame don’t tolerate what we do.” Hazelpaw flicks her tail. “Oh fine, let’s go watch the sunset.” She smiles at me and I feel a skip of happiness in my chest and we start to make our way out of the Fire Woods. An acrid smell suddenly fills the arid lands. “Hazelpaw, do you smell that?” My best friend’s eyes are filled with unfamiliar unease. “''Fire'',” she whispers. My eyes widen by a fraction and I whirl around. Sure enough, the sun had heated up the forest enough to set part of it on fire. “We have to warn the Clan!” I turn and begin to race back to camp. Hazelpaw’s paws pound behind me and we burst into the camp. “The Fire Woods are on fire!” I scream out. Whitewhisker is in front of me in a flash. “Graypaw! Where have you been? Why do you smell like the Fire Woods? If you were there without permission, I--” “It doesn’t matter,” Hazelpaw interrupts, “the more important thing is that the Fire Woods are on fire.” “Impossible,” Goldenflame scoffs. She had come down to attend to her own apprentice. “The Fire Woods haven’t caught fire since the Great Fire. It’s been more than ten moons since that happened.” I remember those times. The Great Fire had been a wall of flame from our camp, but we couldn’t see exactly where it was. I remember how we had feared we would have to evacuate, but then it had died down before it reached our border. “It is true!” I cry out, “You have to believe us!” “As I recall,” Whitewhisker looks disapproving, “last moon the two of you ran in here screaming about wolves when we’ve never seen a wolf in our entire life.” “We’re not kidding this time,” Hazelpaw pleads, “it’s really true.” Before our mentors could reprimand us about “lying”, one of the warriors storm into the camp, his eyes wide. “The Fire Woods are on fire!” “Told you,” Hazelpaw mutters bitterly. I hear someone cry out my name and I see my mother and my brother huddling near the warriors’ den with my little sister with them. She was little Pearlpaw. I bound over with Hazelpaw following. Her family died in the Great Fire because they had been near the border and the heat had caused burns too great for them to be saved. She was more of my second sister though. “Graypaw are you alright?” My father runs his tongue over my pelt and I nod. “You went to the Fire Woods.” His eyes have darkened and I knew he was going to scold me but my mother places her tail on his shoulder. “Hush, Stonefall, he warned the Clan of the fire.” “Not that anyone listened to us,” Hazelpaw frowns. But the Clan knew now. Flamestar was darting around, trying to gather the Clan together. “We do not need to worry!” He shouts, “The flames from Fire Woods should not come any closer to us than it did in the Great Fire.” Hazelpaw flinches and I press my pelt against hers. “THE FIRE!” Someone screams and we see the wall of flames drawing closer. My eyes are wide and Hazelpaw collapses against me. “StormClan, to me!” Flamestar races by. The cats mass together and follow Flamestar out of the camp. The forest, I realize, is covered in a blanket of flames and ash. My mother is trying to carry Pearlpaw but she isn’t strong enough. My father leans over and swings Pearlpaw onto his back to relieve my mother of the stress. “Let’s go,” my father begins, but my mother shrieks as a burning branch came down and burns her flank. “Mother!” I cry out, racing for her. Ash rains around me but I ignore it. The smell is everywhere and I breathe shallowly. Before I could reach my mother, her own pelt catches fire from the still burning branch and she is swallowed by the flames. I stand there, stricken but it is Hazelpaw who saves me. She drags me out of the mess and I barely escape the flames that come from the same ones that had taken my mother. My father stares at the spot, his eyes furious. I shrink away from him but without another word, he pushes me ahead and Hazelpaw trails us. We stumble through the burning forest, trying to find our way out. There’s only one way out, I find out, and it’s through the original Fire Woods and get to the other side that hasn’t caught fire yet. Somewhere in the midst I lose sight of my best friend. “Hazelpaw!” I call out. “Hazelpaw!” “Let’s go,” my father says gruffly, “forget Hazelpaw.” “That’s Hazelpaw we’re talking about!” I try to resist, but my father is too strong, “She’s my best friend!” But my father doesn’t hear my cries and before we step out of the Fire Woods, I swear I hear Hazelpaw scream in pain as the fire swallows her whole. I will never see her again. 'PART TWO' I don’t know how long the fire rages on, but it seems to go on forever. We ran through it, trying to dodge the walls of flames. All I can think about is Hazelpaw and what happened to her. “Move, Graypaw!” My father barks, “Stop lumbering around!” My eyes are watery, from tears or from the smoke I’m not sure. I stumble after my father, who is carrying my sister. Pearlpaw is crying but my father tells her to hold on tightly and he breaks through the line of fire. I follow through after him and collapse once we’re safe. Pearlpaw nestles into my fur but something hard strikes me in the side. I yelp in pain and glance down to see my father’s paw pulling back, leaving a red mark on my side. Before he can strike me again, another warrior places his tail on my father’s shoulder. “Stonefall, save it for someone else. We’ve got company.” My father glowers at the warrior but he looks up stiffly and sees the unfamiliar cats. I wrap my tail around Pearlpaw to hide her. Her sobs are muffled due to her head being buried in my pelt. There’s a regal, elegant looking she-cat standing in the lead. “My name is Rika. We are the Elite Circle and you are now our cats.” “How so?” Whitewhisker calls out, his eyes blazing with fury and anger. His pelt is black from the ash and the fire itself. “What gives you the right to control us?” “You are in our territory,” Rika scoffs. “Just offer us a place to live until our home clears up,” my father suggests, “we don’t need to stay long.” “Oh don’t worry,” Rika smiles, but the smile doesn’t reach her eyes, “you’ll have your home back soon enough. But you’ll be under our rule now.” Flamestar stalks forward. The StormClan leader looks terrible. His pelt is burned and scarred, but the fierce look on his face has not changed. “We have every right to return to our territory with no consequences.” “No, you don’t,” Rika tosses her head back and laughs, “the Fire Woods, as you’ve called it, didn’t set fire by itself. The sun isn’t hot enough and there aren’t enough vegetation within it to burn. We set fire to it.” “You attacked us,” Stonefall sums up. Rika actually looks pleased by this. “Yes, we did.” When nobody of StormClan says anything to this, Rika flicks her tail. “And we’ve obviously won. You’ve lost your home and you are under our rule now.” A young apprentice with cream colored fur stood up from where she was crouched. “We have our own leader and rules!” She shouts, “StormClan won’t bow to you.” Rika glares at her. “All right. Which one of you is the leader?” Flamestar slowly steps out of our little ring. Not many perished in the fire, I realize. As soon as Flamestar leaves the protection of the ring, Rika is on him, tearing through his throat with her claws. “There,” she beams in a cruel way, “you have no leader now. I am your leader.” Gasps ring out among the StormClan cats. I stare in shock at Flamestar’s fallen body. He had five lives left but that wound is enough to kill him. I see him spasm as he is reborn each time. Rika pays no attention to the dying leader. “Round them up,” Rika snaps, “separate them by families and first place them in the Fire Woods. Once the fires die down, you can put more into their old territory.” What stops us from rebelling or escaping? I think, but I don’t voice it out loud. Rika has the same thought because she leans over to one of her companions and whispers something into his ear. He dips in his head in obvious respect and suddenly I’m rounded up with my father and sister and marched back into the Fire Woods. “You are assigned to this sector. Every morning and night your den will be checked.” He points a mound of dirt and piled sticks, “that is your den. If your entire family is not there, someone will be punished.” He leaves us standing there. My father is on me in an instant. “Put Pearlpaw inside and help me with this den,” he snarls, “and then we’ll have training sessions for you.” “Training sessions?” I squeak, “Why?” “You’re training to be a warrior, aren’t you?” Stonefall glares at me, “if you are a warrior, you can help me fight against these Circle cats.” Fight? But I don’t question him. I usher Pearlpaw inside and step back outside to help me father stack up sticks and dirt against our den to keep it warm. “Go hunt,” Stonefall pushes me away from the den, “when you’ve caught three pieces of prey you can come back.” I hurry away from him before any of his paws could strike me. I wander off into the Fire Woods, wondering what prey would be living here. It is such a barren land. There are barely any plants. As I forge deeper into the woods, I notice that there’s a barrier if I go too much to the left. A line of warriors are weaving brambles to separate the sections of the Fire Woods. A sector. I realize. I only manage to catch two pieces of prey before someone barks at me to hurry home before inspection. I heed to his warning and rush home. Stonefall surveys my prey. “Only two?” He snarls. “I can share with Pearlpaw--” I start meekly. “And let her starve because you want half of this tiny morsel?” Stonefall smacks me and I cringe away, “You selfish cat! No, because you couldn’t finish the work, you’ll just have to sleep on an empty stomach tonight.” And so I do. The next day is the same. I only manage to catch two pieces of prey and it’s only because of my sister sneaking a morsel over that I get anything to eat that night. We also squeeze in some training, but my father just uses the time to beat me down. I don’t know why he’s so angry, but he’s always had a bad temper. Before it was my mother who calmed him down, to keep him from abusing either Pearlpaw or I. But my mother’s dead. Third day out. I finally bring back three but my father doesn’t let me eat the third piece. He says Pearlpaw needs to fatten up and she’s not getting enough prey due to my inability to hunt. On the fourth day out hunting, I have the sense to eat while I’m outside and then I drag back two pieces of prey. Sometimes I fear I’ll bring back one but I know I have to eat something. The guilt in me is strong but I ignore it. Every day is a routine. One day I see the inspectors rounding on a little family. The cream colored she-cat from before is glaring at the Circle member and he looks ready to strike her. I stifle a gasp and duck behind a bush to avoid being caught spying on them. Her mother runs out of the den, crying out just as the Circle member slashes through the apprentice’s pelt. Her mother is held back as the cat claws her again and again until she’s left to bleed. The Circle members walk away without another word. I can’t help but stare at the horror. I wonder what the apprentice did to anger the Circle members. “Hey, kit,” someone snarls, “get out of my space.” I jump and mutter a tiny apology before scooting away. I peek at the cream colored she-cat, but she drags herself inside without a glance around. As the days drag on, I witness other horrors. Once I see Circle members publicly executing a member of a family for not showing up on time for inspection. Another time I see a tiny kit get taken away. Later on I find out that any kit under six moons is to tested when they reach their sixth moon. If they pass some sort of assessment, they are taken to the Circle and trained into something “better”, presumably a Circle member. But most kits don’t get far. Most get slaughtered before they can be taken away. My father gets meaner and meaner at home. He swears about my inabilities and tells me I’ll never become a warrior. I don’t point that StormClan is dead and that there was no one I was going to become a warrior anyway. But his lessons go on, even though he tells me that I’m a disgrace and that I’ll never be of any use to him and his cause. I hear that he’s gotten a few other warriors into his cause and that their rebellion will be put into action soon. That only gets my father into a frenzy. He works me harder than ever. One day, he goes overboard. “Graypaw,” he croaks one time, late at night, “come here.” I edge closer but keep a fair amount of distance between us. “I want to show you a killing move.” My eyes widen. Killing moves? That isn’t something we used to learn in StormClan. Killing moves were forbidden, as violence wasn’t supposed to be the answer (especially if it meant killing the opponent). But I shuffle forward obediently and my father rises from where he is. “I want you to watch carefully, Graypaw.” Before I knew it, my father had seized up Pearlpaw and pinned her down in one efficient move. My little sister squeals in surprise and I feel my stomach drop. “Father--” “''Watch'',” my father snarls at me. His claws are poised at my sister’s neck. “You see where my claws are?” I nod in response, “This is where you want to stab your claws in. This will ensure that your opponent will die from the wound.” Before I can stop what happens next, my father unsheaths his claws and plunge them into my sister’s throat. 'PART THREE' I stand solemnly over a tiny grave near the edge of the sector. I trace the name “Pearlpaw” into the dirt. I know it’ll get washed away in the rain or scuffed away by the passing by cats, but someone has to remember her. I let my home. It hadn’t been much of a home since the Circle had stepped in, and I don’t miss it. After my father killed Pearlpaw, he had raved on and on about being a warrior and then he just left. Walked out of the den without another explanation. I had taken the chance to drag Pearlpaw’s body outside and carry her to the edge of the sector to bury her. Glancing one last time at the tiny mound of dirt and saying a few last words, I turn away. I had to find somewhere to stay, and fast. I couldn’t let Stonefall get his claws on me before inspection. Pearlpaw’s death would only mean punishment for us. I don’t feel guilty for leaving my father alone to deal with inspection. After all he had done, he had earned it. I wander around for the longest time. The sector is a nice looking one, once the cats had cleared out the debris from the fire. It’s been nearly a moon since I’ve been placed in this makeshift home. I haven’t been to any of the other sectors. But the next morning I hear that all sectors are being allowed to travel around now. I head for the nearest exit, determined to escape the wrath of my father. I forge deeper into the Fire Woods, heading for StormClan’s old territory. I see familiar and unfamiliar cats milling around. Sometimes I spot a cat and a Clan name pops into my mind. Other times, I don’t remember. It’s strange how in a moon, I could forget so much of my old life because of the drastic change the Elite Circle had forced upon us. All the sectors are the same. There are a few guards roaming around, but lately there’s been less, unless they are checking for inspection. I spend the next few days exploring each sector, sleeping in odd places. One day I decide to go back and visit Pearlpaw’s grave. As I draw near it, I gaze sorrowfully at the small block of stone that marked the grave. The letters “Pearlpaw” are faded and I retrace them. That’s when I hear the first shriek. I whirl around, and crouch into the bushes surrounding Pearlpaw’s grave, muttering an apology to Pearlpaw for stepping on her grave. Cats are being dragged out of their homes. It must be a demonstration to anyone who dares to think of rebelling. Do I count? I silently wonder, as I have escaped the clutches of the Circle for now. I stiffen when I spot a familiar, dark gray pelt. He is with four other cats, all whom I recognize from StormClan’s legacy. “Today,” a Circle cat stalks out. He is pure black, and by his side is a small black she-cat who looks about my age. She stands with her chin jutted out in pride and distaste for the rest of us. I feel resentment boil in my stomach. “You are here to witness the public execution of five cats who dared to try to rebel against us. They are trying to break down the just society we have formed.” Nobody argues with that, but I suppress a snort. What sort of justice did they have? Realization dawns me a little too late. My father must have walked out that day to round up his friends to try to destroy the Elite Circle. I’m not sure if I’m disappointed that he failed, or relieved that he’ll be gone from my life. If I had stayed in the den, would he have taken me along with him? These thoughts race through my head as I watch silently as the Circle member waves his tail and five Circle cats unsheathe their claws, pinning the prisoners down. He lashes his tail down and five set of claws plunge down. I don’t flinch when the claws pierce my father’s throat, staining the ground red. I watch on as the Circle cat ties off his speech and walks off. My eyes focus on the she-cat and I see that she’s staring right at me. I gaze back at her, but she just turns away, ignoring my hiding presence. My gaze flits back to my father’s now dead body. When everyone has gone, I linger, unsure whether or not I should pay my respects. Gazing down upon his lifeless body, I bow my head. I don’t say a word. And then I turn away for the last time. I travel through the sectors, making sure I don’t stay in one place for too long. The guards don’t even notice me, as I blend in with all the other cats. I do hunting by myself, careful to not steal too much from the sectors in case someone needed it. “Mommy,” I hear a tiny cry from a few bushes away, “Mommy I’m hungry!” “I’m sorry, Fernkit, but I don’t have any prey on me right now…” I glance down at the mouse I had just caught. I pick it up and dash through the bushes, nearly bowling over the little kit. “Sorry,” I drop the mouse, “I just...I heard your kit’s cries…” The queen is staring at me with wide eyes. When she doesn’t reply, I nudge the mouse closer to the little brown kit. “Here, you can have it. I can catch another one.” “Thank you,” the queen whispers, “I can repay you--” I shake my head. “No need, really.” I turn to back away, but the queen stops me. “Please, do you have a place where I can stay with my kit? I’m afraid the Circle cats will find me.” ‘ I hesitate. “I don’t have a place,” I admit, “but I could help you look for a secluded area. I should find somewhere permanent to stay too.” “Will you?” She looks so relieved, “Thank you so much.” “No problem,” I smile. It takes awhile, but we manage to find a patch of fern that opened up into a rather spacious clearing. “This,” I purr, “could just be the place we’re looking for.” “Thank you for everything,” the queen brushes her shoulder against mine. The kit she had called Fernkit is mewling with what seemed to be joy. “What’s your name?” My name? I hadn’t used my name since the day my sister died. Nobody had ever wanted it. Graypaw. I hate that name. I hate how it connects to my past, even though it is my one last link to StormClan. I want something more. Something that will live up to a legacy, something that will bring Graypaw to shame. Something that will make me worthy. “Riot,” I tell her, “my name is Riot.” The End. Category:Fan Fictions Category:Cchen3's Fanfics